There are no sure bets in Vegas, unless you’re planning on attending one of the industry’s most results-oriented DJ conventions, Mobile Beat Las Vegas. MBLV is where the smart money finds exclusive access to expert advice on everything from business to performance, as well as killer deals on sound, lighting, music, and video that can translate into a high-profit jackpot when applied to your DJ business.

For a look at how Mobile Beat 2010 is shaping up, and to hear more about what keeps DJs coming back to MBLV each February for their annual jumpstart, we sat down with Mobile Beat’s own Ryan Burger for a quick Q & A...

Q: Ryan, times are tough. We know you have to spend money to make money, but is Vegas the best place for a DJ to put his money right now?

A: It’s no secret that a lot of DJs are experiencing a downturn; they’re worried about their business. For many right now corporate bookings -- holiday parties -- are off 50-60%. Brides are being tighter with their budget, too...

Q: And DJs are looking for a leg-up...

A: They are. And history shows they can get one by attending Mobile Beat. Not a year goes by when we don’t hear from past attendees who tell us how a relatively small investment in air fare, hotels and an expo pass has given them the tools they needed to generate more business.

Q: Give us some examples of what we’ll see at the show...

A: You’ll want to start with the seminars. That’s where you’ll find a variety of industry experts sharing a wealth of information designed to give your business a serious boost, as well as afternoon seminars hosted by our preferred vendors that provide you with an up-close look at the newest gear you’ll need to stay cutting-edge.

Q: What else?

A: We offer the largest exhibit floor for mobile DJs in North America, and access to convention-only pricing on gear, music and video from a variety of vendors. As you know, Promo Only will be there with its usual convention specials. Pioneer puts on a fantastic presentation and like all the vendors in attendance offer special show prices on all their gear. For a full list of vendors you can visit our website.

Q: And after sundown?

A: Well it is Vegas, so you can expect to party. The first night, Monday, we’re featuring a ‘70s Soul Train theme, so you’ll want to pack your baby-blue pants and multi-colored shirts. Tuesday night, we take things up a notch with Coolio playing a two-hour set, sponsored by the American Disc Jockey Association. Also on Tuesday, at the Pioneer party, we’ve booked old-school icon Sugar Hill Gang [Rapper’s Delight] for an hour-long set. Wednesday night, American DJ is doing a customer appreciation night – always good food and a good time there.

Q: And when the fun is done, what will those in attendance take home with them?

A: A good vibe. Our guests leave high on the opportunities we’ve presented. It’s a total jumpstart. And a pleasure for us to see so many attendees so excited about putting what they’ve learned to work when they get home.

Mention the name “Tom Silverman” to most DJs and you’re likely to get nothing more than a raised eyebrow. Mention Tommy Boy Records, however, the landmark hip-hop/dance label Tom Silverman founded, and you’re guaranteed a smile of recognition. Mention DJs to Tom Silverman, a former DJ himself, and you’re guaranteed not only a smile but some incisive opinions as to where the industry is headed from one of the industry’s most forward thinking individuals.

Silverman’s business acumen is legendary within the industry, as is his willingness to share his knowledge and vision with others via his renowned New Music Seminar, coming this February 2nd to Los Angeles.

The old record business is over.
A new music business is rising from its ashes.
We are entering the greatest era of opportunity in history.
You can take advantage of this opportunity if you know the secrets...

“Why would anyone invest in a new artist today?” observes Silverman. “The chances of return are so minimal that you’re much better off going to Las Vegas and gambling. If you know how to play blackjack you have a 49% chance of winning if you can’t count cards. If you can count cards you go above 50%.

“Nobody in the record business today has a 50-50 shot of breaking in a new act. You might as well buy a lottery ticket,” Silverman laughs. “We have to fix that. So the New Music Seminar is the place where we talk about the new model. And this model applies to DJs and dance artists, as well as hip-hop or country artists or, for that matter, magicians and strippers – it applies to everyone.”

If the old business revolved around the record,
the new business revolves around the fan/artist relationship.

“Let’s take David Guetta, for example,” continues Silverman. “Guetta has hundreds of thousands of fans, and while he may only sell 20,000 albums, he’ll sell out 2000 seat venues at $30,000 two hundred nights a year; as a result he’s positioned himself to remix Madonna records and build his career as a producer or whatever he wants to do. He’s monetizing his fan/artist relationship.

“Daft Punk can earn $250,000 playing a giant festival or a big rave; Tiesto or Paul Oakenfold can get $100,000 – all because they have a great relationship with their fan base.

“What our seminar is about is how you as an artist can monetize that relationship in more ways than just selling tickets. You can create merchandise, you can have direct access to your fans via email, you can even sell out shows yourself in some markets. All you need is a venue. And a plan.”

The New Music Seminar

A low-cost, one-day event that appears in four different cities four times a year, Silverman has designed the New Music Seminar to give artists the knowledge and the tools to step into tomorrow’s music business today.

Highlights include a keynote speech, followed by four seminars hosted by a blue-chip panel of industry experts brimming with vital information that ranges from how to maximize revenues from your fan base to the latest techniques for breaking through the noise level generated by MySpace, Facebook and Twitter; and more.

Attendees will also receive a copy of the New Music Seminar Handbook filled with important contact information and vital new music business basics, as well as the opportunity to network with other delegates and attendees.

“In the new world, if there’s a brilliant DJ or dance or electronic producer they should be able to rise to the top, regardless of whether or not they can get airplay,” concludes Silverman. “At the seminar, we don’t look back at the problems; we look forward to the possibilities created by new technology and explore how DJs can make more money the new way.

“We’re here to help you discover what you have to know to quit your day job, to turn your avocation into your vocation, to do what you love all the time. Here’s where you’ll learn how you can make at least $30k a year doing your music fulltime and how to take it from $30k to $40k to $50k to $100k and more.”

There are five million artists with MySpace pages.
How can you become one of the few hundred each year
that break out and become successful?

We’re here this month to talk about how you can get the most out of your Promo Only subscription. And by most, we mean more than you might realize.

Feeling “stuck” with your selection? Switch - at no charge!

It’s a fact of life -- things change. Show us a DJ who hasn’t had the rug pulled out from under him by a sudden change in gigs or formats, and we’ll show you a hundred more who’ve found themselves suddenly sitting on a subscription they can’t use at their new digs. Likewise, we’d have no trouble in rounding up more than a few folks who are riding out a subscription to a format that has, for one reason or the other, waned in popularity, grown stale, or simply changed with the times.

So what do you do when your format no longer works for you? Or when a tempting new selection, such as Express Audio DFF comes along in the middle of your current subscription?

You call us. We fix it. Here’s how...

Let’s say your club owner just informed you that the Thursday night shift you’ve been holding down with some choice hip-hop is switching to house in the hopes of bumping up business. You could stick to your guns, keep it real, and find another hip-hop gig. You could also win the Lottery. Or you could mention that you’re DJ enough to play any kind of music, give us a quick call and keep paying your rent until your quick picks pay off...

When the unexpected happens, we can roll any remaining credits left in any subscription you no longer require over to a new selection of your choice, just like that! Our music consultants can get you up to speed on any new format you might not be familiar with, and even help you get an instant library of previous issues out the door and in your hands in as little as 48 hours -- or even overnight, for those of you who hear on Wednesday that your format is changing on Thursday.

Ditto for those of you who find the format you subscribed to wasn’t what you expected or has changed, as formats do from time to time...
You don’t have to take a backseat to any subscription that doesn’t get you where you want to go. Call us. We can suggest the series that will put you back in the driver’s seat, and roll your current subscription over on the spot (usually at no extra charge*)!

Let’s say you’re chomping at the bit to try out our weekly Express Video or our new Express Audio selections, but have a few months left on your present subscription to ride out...

Rolling from monthly to weekly delivery – and the convenience of monthly billing – is as easy as dialing 407-331-3600. One quick call and we can easily apply your remaining monthly issues towards a new weekly selection that will have you receiving over a hundred new releases a month within days of their release – ready for drag and drop to your laptop.

Is Mainstream Club’s commercial house not catering to your current crop of customers? We can offer you your choice of SIX other Club formats that will. Has the pop in our Pop Latin series gone flat? We can add a little sparkle to your subscription by suggesting any one of a handful of Latin alternatives. Wishing you could have more of the dance radio edits that pop up from time to time on Rhythm Radio? You’ll find more dance radio edits than ever on our Dance Radio series -- and a rollover a phone call away!

Sure, things change; and when they do, we’re here with solutions.

For more quick tips on how to get the most bang for your subscription buck,
or for more info on our new Express Audio DFF weekly service,
give your rep a call today at 407-331-3600.

* Upgrading to a premium series, such as Urban Beats, Club Beats UK or Underground Beats UK may require a small up-charge. Please call for details.

We swear we’re not making this up: The new Pioneer MEP-7000 media player can play music from CD, data CD and DVD, hard drives and mp3 players, and doubles as a Midi controller, karaoke machine and effects unit.

Yeah, it’s all that and a nice software package, too.

We’ve actually been kicking around the MEP-7000 for a couple of months now and here’s what we’ve discovered...

The scratching works really well; the MEP-7000 is surprisingly responsive, with the same sensitivity as the CDJ-1000. Simply press down on the wheel to engage the scratch and effects.

There’s a classic CDJ display above each deck with time display, BPM, pitch-bend and so on - great for quick references. Everything revolves around the centre display, with four navigation buttons at the top to access browse, mix, effects and utility. Underneath the screen there’s a further six buttons to navigate within those menus. In browse, you’ll find disc one and two, USB one (located at the back of the base unit), USB two (at the front), and then PC and playlists.

The screen is surprisingly clear and bright in both daylight and night conditions. Select the effects tab for a choice of three effects.

Album info is displayed with ID3 tag or CD-Text.

File browsing is easy and intuitive, as you’d expect from Pioneer. It remembers all your cue, loops and memory points too. Like the CDJ series, all you need is one button to save and recall.

Noteworthy features...

Set your cue points in the right spots and the MEP can mix tracks within a playlist perfectly in time. Switch off BPM sync and it will do some funky transitions with the effects instead.

If you’re partial to using your USB stick, external drive or iPod, you’re in luck. You can play from any of these devices and add files from audio CD, data CDR or hard drive all at the same time. Cool plus: The MEP allows you to play two tracks from the same drive simultaneously.

Pioneer has put in a lot of work to seamlessly integrate their DJS software with the MEP. The central display boasts all the library information you need at a glance, and the scratch feature is spot on. DJS also uses the MEP as a soundcard so that a laptop can be integrated (with just one cable) to mix between all your other formats, giving you added peace of mind by providing an instant back-up of your music on an external drive, or even on some data DVDs, so if anything goes wrong with any device you can continue your set.

Extended Rebate!!!

Purchase a MEP-7000 from an authorized Pioneer dealer before January 31st, 2010 and you’ll receive 4 three-month subscriptions to the Promo Only CD or DVD series of your choice (current subscribers are welcome to enjoy four new CD or DVD selections).

For some it’s coins; for others, baseball cards, bottle caps or stamps. We’ve been known to hoard an album or two or ten thousand ourselves...

For DJ Joe Krupp of Erie PA, it’s magazines. And not just any magazine. Joe has the distinction of owning every Promo Only Magazine ever published. Every single one of ‘em: black & white, four color, matte, full color glossy – Joe has ‘em all, a collection that spans nearly 14 years and tops some 160 issues.

“I found that if I put them in a notebook binder they make a pretty handy reference, especially the charts. I don’t know about you but I tend to forget what year some songs came out. So these are great for class reunion and weddings – they don’t take much space and again, they’re handy, because you can see at a glance what year a song appears and what issue it’s on,” offers Joe.

We’re happy to count Joe as one of our longest running subscribers and look forward to updates on his newest passion, male modeling.

As the ‘09 comes to a close, we go to our good friend, DJ and vice-president of Bank of America NE, Jerry Bazata for the one question on every DJ’s lips this time of year -- how to best maximize our earnings in the upcoming year...

PO: Jerry, with all this continued talk of a double-dip recession and the tightening of the credit markets, should DJs be considering expanding their mobile DJ business or upgrading their equipment now?

JB: Good question. I’ll give you two reasons why now is the time to invest in your business...

The American Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009

To better understand, let’s say you are a mobile DJ contemplating the purchase of a new video system, looking for the opportunity to capture an untapped market -- video.

The American Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows a small business owner (you) the opportunity to fully depreciate the expense of new equipment in the year in which it is purchased, up to a maximum amount of $250,000.00.

This accounting method, for tax purposes, is better known as “Section 179 Expensing.” Under Section 179 Expensing equipment and off-the-shelf software may be immediately expensed (deducted) in the same year as the asset was placed in service, rather than recovered over time, as with an alternate accounting method known as depreciation.

This “rapid” depreciation can help lower your adjusted gross income immediately, help you qualify for other various deductions and ultimately reduce your tax liability – that’s less of your money going to Uncle Sam. And that’s a good thing.

Best of all that extra money in your pocket will allow you to hook-up with new gear, software or even an extra CD or DVD subscription from Promo Only and claim another deduction next year.

Deals too good to pass up!

Manufacturers are offering a variety of incentives that provide for reduced acquisition costs for DJ equipment. With inventory levels high and company’s looking to make room to bring new products to market, retailers are passing along measurable savings on new equipment purchases.

My bottom line is your bottom line: Now is the time to make that all-important decision to update your systems, venture into video performance, incorporate digital technology or acquire the latest in lighting and laser effects.

About Jerry Bazata

When not advising his clients at Bank of America, Jerry is president of J&J Marketing and Entertainment and a leading consultant for the Nightclub and DJ Industry. Jerry is featured in DJ Times Business Line and as an industry expert at the International DJ Expo, International Bar/Nightclub and Restaurant Show and Hospitality Industry.

Our quick take: While Guitar Hero is fun for the players, watching someone play GH is akin to watching bad karaoke. DJ Hero, whether you’re playing or not, will make you want to get off your ass and dance. Hit the Euphoria Button (Hero’s cruise-control feature) and the game goes into party mode, playing continuously without scoring or user interface. Not such a bad thing when you consider how good the music is.

While DJ Hero is clearly a move on Activision’s part to tap into genres other than the classic rock, metal and pop made famous again by Guitar Hero, we have to say that anything that brings hip-hop and dance to the masses in an all-new interactive way is a good thing. Anything that does it with a turntable is even better.

Reality check: DJ Hero is not going to replace DJs anymore than Guitar Hero has replaced real guitarists in real bands. Will it inspire a new generation to hit the turntables for real? Only time will tell...

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